A Cleric of Tacitus
Season Ten Bonus Episode Preceded by: Season Ten Season Finale: Ashra Shrugged Summary : The evening after the mutiny, Aether and Avimeus have a dinner date with Coriander Highrun. Cicero, Ashra, and Leilah all want to maintain low profiles and therefore stay behind, but Kruglor decides to accompany the two as a bodyguard. : After the others leave, Leilah hands Ashra a note where she recorded a strange series of letters she received in the dream. The two then separate into different rooms at Cicero's suggestion. Ashra, incredibly resentful of Leilah and untreated for her Sanity Points, holds out for a while before quietly beginning to solve the letters. : Meanwhile, the other three meet Coriander Highrun and his dinner guest, a neogi who introduces himself as Tiemp Hiss. Tiemp has changed a great deal since the party last saw him at the Ruin of Baldur, however, and now has all the memories they associate with Neax Hiss. As no one who knew both neogi is at the dinner, however, the party does not know this as they start making small talk. : Coriander is somewhat racist, and Aether takes offense at one of his remarks. (Is that why this happened? I know she got the idea for some reason.) She slips some of her drow poison into his drink. : Tiemp Hiss claims that he can buy and sell anyone, and Avi negotiates with him for him to procure Vishnu. They settle on a price -- Avi's Rod of Rulership -- and a meeting time in Port Nyasa. : Aether takes the woozy Coriander back to his room. Kruglor follows as a chaperone, and encourages Aether not to commit date rape. Aether explains that she actually just means to make him think he'd had sex with her, and use that for blackmail. She undresses him and binds him to his bed while Kruglor stands as reluctant lookout. She loots his universal key for the ship. When he starts waking up, she drugs him again. : She sees his safe in his room, grabs it, and sneaks it back to one of the party's hotel rooms. She sends it through the dumbwaiter to the room with Ashra in it, asking her to crack the code on the safe. Ashra sends it back up, screaming mentally at Aether about how she is endangering Ashra's life and the lives of the rest of the party by bringing that thing into their possession and if she can't bring it back then then she needs to get rid of it right fucking now. : Aether and Ashra have a brief fight sending it up and down at each other before Aether gives in and drops it off a balcony, where it splashes into the water. Ashra asks Aether to come down and talk to her, clearly meaning to attack her, and Cicero decides to keep the two safely separated. And, for that matter, to keep Ashra away from pretty much everyone. : An Inquisitor comes by where Avimeus is staying and says he'd like to talk to him. (Or was Avi summoned up there? Or did he make him wait? I know they met somehow...) Avimeus goes to Coriander's rooms, where Coriander seems very hung over. The Inquisitor explains that there's been an attempt on Coriander's life and that Avi's consort is suspected to be the culprit. Avi acts appropriately horrified. He says he'd like to get off the boat at Port Nyasa, in case the attempts will include one on his own life. : When Avi rejoins the party, they have an emergency meeting about how to get everyone off the boat safely. There are discussions of whether they should turn Aether in ("shut up, Ashra") or frame someone else. Ashra harasses Leilah until she smacks her hands in front of her face; everyone thinks Leilah slapped Ashra, including Ashra, but Leilah insists indignantly that she didn't. No one really cares if she did except Ashra, however, so the discussion goes on without much incident. : Avimeus can ask to be allowed to privately meet up with his own airship, which can meet them in a few days if the crew sets a quick pace. He can probably convince them he's sufficiently paranoid that he needs to do so away from the eyes of the Inquisitor, who would see through any disguise Ashra, Aether, and Cicero had. However, that depends on him not being under suspicion himself. Also, they all need to leave together, and they didn't arrive together. Leilah and Ashra need to be folded into the group somehow. : Ashra takes a break from being a crazy asshole to come up with an actually useful idea: forge a letter from the Circle of the True claiming that this was a terrorist act meant to protest Coriander's use of imprisoned water elementals as a power source. Then Avi can claim he needs anything he wants in terms of security and privacy, since the Circle might assault him as well, allowing them to leave as they wished. Aether could be Sequestered by Leilah and placed in a barrel, which Ashra will carry as a "holy relic" while disguised as a cleric of Victor Hieronius that Avi picked up out of religious solidarity. That will give Ashra and Leilah a reason to travel with Avimeus, and it will also mean that if Ashra is asked for papers, she can produce Zaphodel's. Ashra assures the party she would not harm Aether while Aether is unconscious, because Aether will not suffer enough that way. : The party generally accepts this plan. Leilah and Ashra give Aether all the relevant information on the Circle of the True, and she forges a letter; Cicero Magic Emulates a druid's animal messenger spell to have a bird deliver the letter. After enough time has passed, Avimeus talks to Coriander and arranges for a secret meetup with the Epitome. He hears that a suspect has been apprehended, which Ashra thinks is Leilah's father. Leilah shrugs this off as unprovable. : The meetup with the Epitome goes surprisingly smoothly. No one is asked for papers, and they all file quickly onto the ship before it takes off. The party is safe. Leilah releases the spell and allows Aether to wake up inside her barrel. She then goes to the hostile Ashra and casts both Restoration and Lesser Restoration. Her sanity temporarily restored, Ashra expresses her reluctant gratitude. : Sugar and Honey set a course for Port Nyasa.